Hard to get into Ghosts, the new EP from Isle of Man’s Slow Decay. It’s not that there’s anything particularly wrong with the three-song outing; the vocals – delivered by a front-woman who sounds like the offspring of Bjork and Danzig – are well-studied and well-trained, the guitar crunches, the drums pop. It’s just that there’s not anything particularly right about it, either.
The opening title track sets the stage – driving but danceable 4/4 post-punk echoing Siouxsie and the Banshees. But it doesn’t go anywhere from there. Instead, we get two more tracks of largely the same, the guitars never really reaching out from beyond the background, the vocals always of the wailing variety. At times, it feels like it’s even being looped ad infinitum.
There are those who kill for this 80s-conscious brand of vaguely goth-ish post-punk, the kind that offers color to the darker moments of a John Hughes film. I’m not biting. Slow Decay has some chops and their production is honed just right. They just need to focus a little more on the songwriting prowess and a little less on the packaging.
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